


Until We Align

by beckettjoy



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, benarmie, going to add more tags as i post more, sort of??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:29:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22441846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckettjoy/pseuds/beckettjoy
Summary: Hux lets a friend convince him to try out a dating app, because he is pathetically inexperienced but a hopeless romantic. After meeting his very first person, he realizes just how incredible yet cruel being in love can be.Based on a true story.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Kudos: 28





	Until We Align

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I found this in a document on my computer while reorganizing for the new semester (read: procrastinating my Latin work), and decided to just post it as a first chapter. By virtue of it's being based on true events, there's already an outline for the story, which I would love (but find difficult) to write.

Sitting in the Uber, watching rows of cute little houses trickle by in the dark, Hux is unpleasantly surprised at how nervous he was becoming. Each time he switches between obsessively checking Snapchat and Uber, seeing the little blue “delivered” triangle stay stubbornly filled in or watching the little car icon inch closer to the destination marker, he can practically feel his heartbeat kick up a notch.

The car pulls up in front of the theater at 9:40, five minutes before the movie is due to start. On autopilot, Hux thanks the driver and walks inside the small, slightly run-down building. He sends a quick message, “ _I’m here_ ” before walking straight into the bathroom in the far corner of the lobby area. The reply comes almost instantly: “ _On the freeway_ ”. Not knowing the area at all, Hux has no idea what this means as far as timing, and the movie’s about to start, so he simply replies to hurry, while shutting himself in a bathroom stall, breathing hard. After a few minutes, he walks up to the mirror, checking his hair and clothes, face flushed unnaturally red with nerves, negative thoughts racing through his mind. _What if he thinks I’m ugly? What if I think_ he’s ugly? _What if we don’t get along? What if I want to leave but I’m trapped in the movie? What if he wants to leave? What if–_

The train of thought is cut off abruptly by Hux’s phone buzzing twice in his back pocket, a Snapchat message: “ _I’m here, where are you?” “In the bathroom”_ Hux responds quickly, his breath starting to come even more rapidly, heart feeling like it iss about to punch out of his chest. The moment of truth. 

Slowly, Hux walks out of the bathroom into the lobby area – and immediately sees a guy sitting on a bench by the wall, looking around expectantly. The longish black hair is instantly familiar to Hux from the couple photos online. There isn’t even a second for Hux to size him up before he turns in Hux’s direction. 

“Ben?” Hux asks apprehensively. 

The guy immediately stands up, grinning. “Yeah! Do you already have your ticket? I wasn’t sure, since I invited you, if I was paying or what…” 

_Oh fuck he’s really hot,_ says Hux’s brain, followed by, _Oh fuck there’s no way he’s gonna like me._

“No, I don’t,” Hux replies, starting to walk forwards towards the ticket counter, trying not to let on how hard his heart was racing. 

“It’s, uh, that way,” Ben says with a little laugh, placing a light hand on Hux’s arm to steer him away from the concessions counter he had been so confidently headed towards, and in the direction of the actual ticket counter. 

While Hux pays for his ticket, Ben holds up a plastic water bottle with an excited smile. The vodka he’d said he was bringing along. _Thank God._ Hux is always a lot less anxious and a lot more relaxed and talkative when he was drinking, which is why he reacted so eagerly when Ben had offered to bring some pumpkin-flavored vodka (it _is_ October) for them to share during the movie. 

The theater is surprisingly packed full, and they find non-ideal seats near the back of the room, with other people completely surrounding them. 

In the time it takes for the previews to play, before the movie starts, regardless of the fact that they’re in a full public theater and haven’t even started on the alcohol yet, Hux and Ben cannot stop talking to each other. They had only been talking for about a day on Tinder before meeting, so didn’t really have a chance to get to know each other. 

The rest of the movie is a blur – between drinking enough vodka to make his head spin (which was sadly not actually pumpkin flavored but rather peach, a mismatched expectation which almost made Hux spit it out on the first sip) and the sheer exuberance he felt while talking to Ben, and the fact that throughout the entire thing, practically from the first scene, Ben _did not_ take his hands off Hux’s body. Grabbing his thigh, rubbing a hand over his legs, squeezing an arm around Hux’s shoulders, resting his head on Hux, pulling Hux’s head over onto his shoulder, holding his hand – practically any form of interpersonal contact appropriate for the setting. They talk so ceaselessly that they have to get shushed by the man in front of them: about the movie, their shared interests, their lives…for Hux, who spent his life struggling talking to anyone he doesn’t know well, much less any guys he thought were even mildly attractive (much less someone who looks like _that_ ), it literally feels like a miracle, a dream, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. 

By the time the credits roll, they both have practically permanent smiles and stumbling legs, Hux significantly more so than Ben, since he stopped Ben drinking very much because he has to drive. If Hux had been in a rational state of mind, he probably would not have gotten in the car. He even realized this as they walked across the parking lot: Ben was definitely at least tipsy, Hux would be going to his house in a completely unknown location, nobody else knew where he was, and even if it felt like he’d known Ben for his entire life, he honestly didn’t know him that well. Also, the entire front hood of Ben’s sedan was crunched in. 

But in retrospect, Hux was so glad he got in the car. 

While driving, they discover a shared interest in the TV show _American Horror Story,_ and Ben suggests they start watching the second season together when they get back to his house. Hux agrees, but when they reach the destination (quite quickly and luckily in one piece), they are waylaid by Ben’s dog, who will not stop barking at Hux the moment he walks into the little house. 

“Oh, you know how she’s like,” Ben’s mother says from the sofa where she’s up watching TV, while Hux keeps his back straight and tries to appear as sober as possible, “She doesn’t like any new people, you have to take her for a walk.” 

So back out they go, Ben explaining that his dog, Abby, only trusts people after they’ve taken a walk with her, and sure enough almost the moment they start down the sidewalk, she calms down. Ben doesn’t stop there though, instead leading Hux to a 7/11, and becoming appalled when Hux admits he’s never had a Slurpee, he insists on buying Hux a large Slurpee, while he gets a hot dog for Abby and a mini frozen pizza for himself (which Hux questions, bewildered, given Ben had said he works at a Pizza Hut). Hux has to admit – his cherry/blue raspberry Slurpee is _amazing,_ and he slurps on his happily for the walk back to Ben’s house. 

Hux can feel himself starting to sober up by the time they get up to Ben’s room, and he _really_ likes the level of intoxication he’d been at, so while Ben sets up AHS on his TV, Hux has some more of the peach vodka. Ben joins him soon after, trying to catch up to Hux’s level. It works, because he has the “great” idea of mixing the last quarter of Hux’s poor Slurpee with a bunch of the vodka, and a black cherry flavored seltzer water. The look on Ben’s face when he takes a hearty gulp of that concoction is _priceless_ to Hux, and in that moment, while practically wheezing from laughter, Hux knows… 

  
  
Hux can tell that he is well and truly drunk when Ben pulls back the covers of his bed, takes off his jeans, and lies down – and Hux follows suit, including shedding his pants for no apparent reason. Which may not seem like much, but for Hux, being incredibly unhappy with his body combined with literally never experiencing any sort of sexual (or romantic) encounter with anyone else, even at 19 years old (not counting a brief kiss that he may or may not have hallucinated at 13), not to mention his usual extreme shyness – cuddling up to a wonderfully attractive boy in his bed with neither party wearing pants, well, this was a big step for him. 

About five minutes into the episode (not even 20…the memes lied…), Ben props himself on one arm, whispers to Hux, “I’ve been wanting to do this all night”, and swiftly leans down to kiss him. 

Spending life as a hopeless romantic without any actual experience of his own plus barely having friends means that Hux has spent a _lot_ of time watching and (mostly) reading stories of romantic or sexual natures. (Okay yeah, he’s read a lot of fanfiction, whatever.) Hux has seen described in hundreds and thousands of ways how it feels, even just something as simple as being kissed, and even though it sounds horribly cliché as the thought flits through his brain, _none of that could do the feeling justice._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! I'd love any feedback, and if you want me to keep going, please let me know!  
> Any updates (also just SW related content) will be found on my tumblr, [fuckhux](http://fuckhux.tumblr.com)


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